


Accepting Failure

by hirusen



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel (Borderlands) Lives, Borderlands Spoilers, Canonical Character Death, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Guilt, Handsome Jack Asks For Help, Handsome Jack Gives Up On The Warrior, Hugs, Language, Medical Procedures, Mind Manipulation, Near Death Experiences, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Sanctuary (Borderlands), Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-24 21:58:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20713193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirusen/pseuds/hirusen
Summary: No one ever expected he'd do this.





	1. Please...

**Author's Note:**

> Had this idea as a dream and I really wanted to write it.

Axton was gunning down the Loaders for his fucking life while Roland and Lilith got into position so they could lower the last shield on the Eridium pump so he could, unfortunately, kill off Angel and put a stop to Handsome Jack's plan. Of course that was until the Loaders all suddenly froze, and...

"STOP, PLEASE!"

Out of nowhere, there he stood: Handsome Jack. Mere feet away from Lilith and Roland, who both looked as surprised as Axton did. "Please, please stop." He actually begged, Axton very faintly seeing something like a fading glow from under the mask Jack wore, but...what was it? Jack slowly moved towards Lilith, not even seeming scared when she flared her power, venomous anger twisting her face. "And why shouldn't I just kill you here and now?!" "Go ahead if you'd like, just...let me go to my daughter first."

_...What?_ Jack wasn't..? He didn't..? Wasn't not getting killed a BIG part of his plan? Lilith and Roland exchanged a look before, much to Axton's shock, they allowed him to go to his daughter. Granted Roland had his gun trained on the back of Jack's head, but the man didn't seem to care. He strode over to his daughter, easily slipping past the barrier and stood underneath her. "Angel..." He hushed as he raised a hand up to her and they all saw as she hesitated, deep seated fear in her eyes, but in the end gave in and slowly floated down to her father.

Jack took her hand and guided her to land on her feet. _I...have to... No, **need** to do this._ He thought as he carefully pulled his daughter against his body, reaching behind her after he pulled something out of his pocket; he heard as Roland shot, but thanks to the barrier, the bullet never made it through. "Ngh!" Angel hissed as she felt the needle slip into her body, her fear spiking as she felt something being injected into her blood, but then...the effects of the Eridium that's been pumping through her body for years started to, if just faintly, ebb away.

"W-What?" She asked, but her father stayed silent as he carefully removed the direct line that pumped the Eridium into her body. "N-No, no wait!" Angel panicked, but after a moment, realized that she didn't feel like her body was shutting down. Handsome Jack pulled Angel tighter against his body as he dropped the tether to the ground, the barrier being dropped and he had been fully expecting Roland to empty a clip into his back, but was a little thankful when he didn't. "I'm...so sorry, Angel. Your father's a freaking moron." Jack stated and felt as his daughter gripped onto his jacket just a sliver tighter.

Gently as to not hurt her, Jack leaned down enough to scoop his daughter into his arms and as he turned to face the others, his foot knocked into the Vault Key that had been with his daughter. Roland and the others watched on in confusion and anticipation as Jack looked heavily at the Vault Key and--to the amazement of everyone--placed his shoe onto it and shoved it as far away from him as he could. "...What?" Lilith breathed as Jack slowly made his way over to them, his eyes locking with hers as he got within striking distance.

"...Help her, please..." Jack pleaded as he tenderly transferred his daughter into the other Siren's arms. He reached into a pocket of his jacket and pulled out another syringe filled with a light green liquid. "It reverses the effects of long-term Eridium exposure. I'll be sending more to Sanctuary, along with any other medical equipment and supplies that are needed to treat my daughter." "What? I...I-I don't..." "Lilith, I'm asking you to take care of my daughter for a while. Please. I've fucked up enough; I need to set some things right."

They all heard as Angel lightly chuckled. "Language." Jack, despite the mood in the room, felt himself weakly smile and laugh. "My bad."

Everyone was understandably confused. This was Handsome fucking Jack, hoisting the largest white flag in history, and asking who he calls the enemy for help. ...Did all six galaxies just collapse on itself? Of course, before anyone could properly respond, the Loader Bots kicked back into motion. "Shit! Go, run!" Jack screamed as he shoved Lilith and Roland towards an exit. "What?! Why?!" "Besides for my daughter's safety, the New-U system won't revive you in here! I've disabled the signal for them to work in here, so if any of us die, it's for good!"

Oh. That just made the last fifteen minutes Axton went through much more harrowing in hindsight. No one needed to be told twice after that. Racing towards the exit with Jack providing covering fire seemed to only ensure their luck for so long, Roland giving a loud yell as a bullet ripped through his chest. "ROLAND!" Lilith screamed, but Jack grabbed her shoulders and shoved her towards the exit. "Go! I'll try to help him!" Lilith was frantic, but in that moment, she realized that she and Jack shared the same expression: they both had the life of someone they loved on the line.

"Now go. GO!" Jack barked as he spun on his heel and tossed a grenade, Lilith watching for a moment as it vanished from sight before reappearing in the middle of a small cluster of Loaders, electric and corrosive elements exploding over them, eating at both their shields and metal in equal parts. In a few more moments, Lilith, Angel, and Axton were out of the area and heading towards Sanctuary. Once he couldn't see the others anymore, Jack slid his hands under Roland's arms and dragged him to some decent cover; which was a rather large pile of forcefully deactivated Loaders, but it worked so who cared.

"W-Why...the sudden change in heart?" Roland coughed as he allowed--without much choice--Jack to examine his wound. Jack said nothing as he pulled off the mask he wore, a symbol of the Vault seared into his flesh, Roland noting that Jack was effectively blind in his left eye thanks to it. "This rune was in a Vault in Elpis; when I touched it, I saw...everything. I saw the Warrior, that I'd be the one to awaken it, but...it also showed me what I'd loose if I pursued it." "Which was?" Roland grunted as Jack put pressure on the wound, trying to slow the bleeding as he seemed to go through what he had on him to help. "My daughter."

Roland froze. "For a stupidly long time, I was okay with that outcome, but..." Roland cocked a brow, waiting for the man to go on. "About three months before all of...this madness...happened, I had decided in the back of my mind that I couldn't lose my daughter; that I'd figure out a way to open the Vault without my daughter dying." "That's what made you create that serum?" Jack hummed as he gritted his teeth; in another moronic move, he didn't bring any health packs with him. Then again, he was half expecting to be shot dead the second he had showed his face down here.

Glancing out of cover, he cursed under his breath when he didn't see any health syringes on the ground nor in the supply crates. "Oh Lilith's gonna kill me." "Not gonna make it, huh?" Roland asked with a chuckle that turned into a rough cough. "I had...kinda figured I might not've." Jack sighed, moved Roland so his head was resting against one of his legs and he kept the pressure against the still bleeding wound, hoping for some kind of miracle that would get his wound to close. "I'll admit, dying in your arms wasn't something I'd think would ever happen." Jack scoffed with a smirk down at the man who shared the look.

"...Lilith did that, right?" Roland asked as he reached up, a finger touching the bottom of the arc on Jack's cheek. "Yeah. But I was starting to turn into the asshole you all know me as, so I guess it was justified." Roland's breathing was getting a little more labored and Jack knew the man didn't have a lot of time left. "...Anything you want me to tell them?" "...Naw. Lil knows everything that I would say." Jack nodded his head, slipping his mask back on. "Well, I'll at least get you home." Jack said as he pulled Roland up into his arms with surprising ease. "W-What?" "I'm a lot stronger than I look."

Jack lined himself up as best as he could with the exit and took off in a mad dash for it, ignoring the bullets the grazed and nicked him in favor of channeling his energy into speed. The door slammed shut the moment he was out of the room and he felt that Roland's body wasn't as warm as it had been during the run and that his skin was starting to lose its color. Kneeling down to free up a hand, Jack gently closed Roland's eyes and made his way over to a fast travel station to get Roland home.


	2. Concede

Handsome Jack half expected to have a bullet going through his skull the moment he stepped foot in Sanctuary. After getting a few strides in, he was quickly surrounded, those who were armed aiming right for his head though he saw the horror in their eyes as they realized who exactly he was holding. "Is Lilith here?" He simply asked, no mocking tone, no harsh words. Moments of tension passed before they heard a woman gasp and footsteps rushing towards them. Jack glanced over to the sound and let a genuine frown press against his face.

"I'm...sorry. I couldn't..." He stumbled for the right words to say, but nothing was coming to him and perhaps rightfully so. What could he say to the most powerful Siren in all of the known universes who just lost the love of her life? Lilith sucked in a painful breath and walked closer to Jack, seeing deep in his eyes a flicker of fear that she might kill him--and the thought _did_ cross her mind. "At... At least he's home now." She whispered as she carefully took Roland's body out of Jack's arms. "...This way." Lilith ordered and turned to walk further into Sanctuary, knowing Jack won't be too far behind.

Despite the place not looking like it was gonna hold together for much longer, Jack will admit to enjoying the silence that could be found here. He kept his eyes low to the ground, not wanting to see the anger and disdain on the citizens faces as he followed their leader down the streets to most likely their headquarters. "...You motherfucker!" He heard Mordecai growl as he entered the building behind Lilith but Brick was quickly restraining his companion, though the same hostility was on his face as well. "Let me go! Let me have a piece of him for Bloodwing!"

Handsome Jack locked his gaze with the Vault Hunter and decided that perhaps that's another place he could start to make amends. "What? Nothing to say?" "...You won't listen to it if I did." Jack replied and it looked like Mordecai hated that he was right. Lilith had taken Roland's body to a private area--or Jack assumed she did, hadn't followed her past the front door--and when she appeared again, motioned for Jack to follow her. "Wait, where are you taking him?" Mordecai asked, his tone holding his confusion. "To his daughter." "What?! You're letting him near her after what he--" "**Jack** was the one who gave her to us." Lilith countered and any arguments the other Vault Hunter had died off.

Still keeping his head down, Jack followed the Siren upstairs and down a hallway where Axton seemed to be standing guard. "She's still very weak; we've already used the other syringe you gave us, and there's signs that she's improving, but it's clear we're gonna need more." "I'm not surprised; I've...pumped her with Eridium ever since she was barely a teen. It's been pumped into her for four years; if I hadn't given her that first dose, she would have died the second I un-tethered her." Jack explained before he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his own ECHO. "...There. I'm not sure how long it'll take for her to recover, but I've sent about a year's worth of the serum to arrive here in about twenty minutes; any other equipment you need?"

Jack offered and Lilith gave him a list of what was needed based on what Dr. Zed had said; it was worth $370,558 in total costs and Jack paid for every dime of it himself. "...Is it okay if I speak with her for a moment?" Jack asked and Lilith glanced through the glass to Angel; she was covered in wires and medical equipment, a breathing mask strapped to her face and an IV taped into place on her arm. "A moment." Lilith agreed and Jack didn't waste anytime. Closing the door behind him, Jack quietly made his way to the bedside of his barely alive daughter.

"...I'm gonna make things right, Angel. There's too many years I've taken away from you, too many things I never let you do." He carefully took her limp hand into both of his and knelt down. "I'll understand if you can never forgive me for everything I've done to you, but know that deep down, despite EVERYTHING, that I have always loved you. That will never change. I will set things right, and I will try to make up for being the shit father I have been to you for all these years." He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the back of Angel's hand. "My sweet princess, you'll never have to be afraid of this evil king anymore." Jack muttered into his daughter's pale skin before carefully setting it back onto the bed and taking his leave.

"I'm not sure when I'll be back, but if possible, I'd like to check up on her every once in a while?" He asked Lilith, who crossed her arms and held a firm look to him. "Is that so?" Jack nodded. "It took until you all nearly killed my daughter for me to break through, but..." Jack trailed off as he pulled his mask off, revealing the scar of the rune Lilith had forcefully branded onto his face, hearing as Axton hissed through his teeth upon seeing it. "The Sentinel, to some extend, had been manipulating my mind; it was the reason I seemed to have lost it when you punched this into my face." Jack remarked, not really holding it against Lilith; none of them knew that the Sentinel could do something like that anyway.

"Is that...why..?" Jack hummed. "I told Roland this, but as the rune was transferring its information into my head, I saw myself awakening the Warrior, but I also saw Angel's death...as well as my own." Axton and Lilith froze. "I knew, in the part of my head that was actually my own, that pursuing the Warrior would end up killing me, but thanks to my controlled mind, I couldn't fight against it." "How'd you break free from its control?" Axton asked and Jack shook his head. "No clue, really. I just know that I bumped into one of my employees on Helios and suddenly the Sentinel's control over me wasn't as strong. Used it as a focus point and I was finally able to break loose right before..."

Right before they could kill his daughter. Talk about a stroke of luck.

"What will do you while you're away?" "Try to...clear my head. Right some wrongs if I can." "...How do we remove the restraint around Angel's neck?" Lilith asked softly. Try as they might, none of them had been able to remove the item from around Angel's neck. "It's encoded to my biosignature, but let's wait until Angel's awake first; she doesn't have too much control over her powers, so she might accidentally turn something off that's keeping her alive." Lilith narrowed her eyes at Jack, but he quickly raised in hands as a shield. "I had made them to help Angel train herself to control her powers so she wouldn't need them; they've been altered so they do that and much more that harms her. I'll see if I can't re-code that while I'm away."

Lilith wasn't too fond of hearing what had just come out of this man's mouth, but it did seem like there was a different light in Jack's eyes, so perhaps he was telling the truth. "...The supplies should be here. You want me to help bring them in, or..?" "I think you've made the people of Sanctuary uncomfortable enough." Jack nodded his head without argument, turning on his heel and left the building, heading to a fast travel station to go back to Helios.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who are curious, the employee that Jack bumped into is Rhys; I've got a little headcannon that he was created in an Atlas facility to be an artificial Siren and that Jack had been part of the team that raided the seemingly abandoned facility and retrieved him as an infant.
> 
> I might actually write a story for that one of these days.


	3. Soothe

Timothy sighed as he kicked off his boots and flopped onto the couch of his apartment. _Just 26 more years of this and I'm free._ Taking the body double gig may have put him out of reach of his student loan collectors, but that didn't mean he was out of reach of other unpleasant things. Like fighting off giant creatures that should really belong in some freaky hentai porn than on the surface of Elpis or Pandora; or trying to survive through **another** assassination attempt. But, he guessed that the silver lining in all of this was that Handsome Jack had paid for all of the personal accommodations, including his apartment.

A rough knock on his front door pulled Timothy out of his thoughts, lifting his head up with a cocked brow. He didn't have anyone coming over, and as far as he knew, Jack had decided to cancel any meetings for this whole week so there's no way it's someone coming to fetch him for one. The knock came again and with a huff, Timmy got up and opened the door. "J-Jack?!" He squeaked as the man was standing before him, not letting his double get another word out before pushing past him into his living space, Timothy reacting quickly and shutting his door so no random person saw two Jacks.

Jack had his back to him, Tim wanting to say something but saw the tension in his boss's shoulders and stayed silent. Slowly, the man who held his contract turned to face him and Timothy felt his eyes go wide at the look the man wore. His eyes were shining with unspilt tears and his face wordlessly pleading for comfort. Reacting as the person he actually is, not pretending to be, Timothy ripped Jack into his embrace and hugged him tightly, tucking the older man's face into the nook of his neck and felt as he silently cried, his hands gripping his jacket tight enough that Timmy swore he heard some of the stitches break from the force.

Swaying from side to side gently, Tim held Jack as he broke down, not asking anything. About two days ago, Jack returned from the Bunker after he recieved a notification that a small group of Vault Hunters had managed to get past the barrier he had set up leading to the location, and upon his return he quickly dismissed any and every thing that required him to interact with people in anyway. This has to be the first time he's been in contact with someone again; Timothy suspects that Jack used his cloaking device to stay hidden while he made his way here.

"...Can I take it off?" He asked, knowing the man knew he was referring to the mask he wore. Jack weakly nodded as his body double gently pulled him away from his warm form just enough to carefully pull the mask off, exposing the scar on his face. Timothy remembers when Jack had come back from the Vault on Elpis, later freaking out about what the new scar on his face meant for him later, but quickly running to the man upon first seeing it. Jack had let him take care of him that time too, cleaning up the damaged skin as best as he could, covering it with medical gauze and taping it in place before he pulled out a make-up kit he had and applying it to hide the new feature of Jack's face until they could make it to the medical R&D labs and Jack explained the situation to them.

Tossing the mask to land on the couch, Timothy pulled his boss back into his body, feeling as Jack nuzzled deeper into his neck now that he didn't have the mask on. "...You did the right thing, Jack. Don't you doubt yourself." He reassured and felt as Jack's body relaxed a little bit more into his own. _So he's scared he's made the wrong choice._ There's not many things that Timmy knows of that could cause Jack to think like that, but his curiosity will just have to behave for now; even a toddler knew it was unwise to ask Jack what caused him to be like this without an instantaneous death.

A full half hour passed before Jack sniffed loudly and pulled away from his doppelganger, eyes ringed red and trails of tears and snot drying on his face but he didn't really care. "Better?" Timothy asked and to his shock, Handsome Jack nodded. "...Freckles?" Tim hissed and softly cursed under his breath; while all the plastic surgeries to change him into Jack's image was successful (as anyone could tell you), Tim's freckles seemed to have persisted despite the skin treatment he's forced to go through to hide them. "I-I'm sorry, Jack! I'll go and--" Jack's chuckle cut him off.

"Keep 'em. They look nice." "...What?" Timothy was honestly lost; Jack had made it clear to him that they had to be identical copies of each other and that meant that Timothy's freckles couldn't stay. "I'm sorry, I..." Jack heaved a breath before sitting down on the couch, Tim not too far behind. He watched as Jack picked up his mask and traced a finger over the edge of it. "I'm...trying to right some wrongs I've done in the past. But...I'm honestly not sure how to do that exactly and I, I was hoping..." Jack glanced to Timothy. "Maybe you could help me with that?"

Timmy's brain short circuited for a moment. Jack was...asking for...help? Really? "Did all six galaxies go into spontaneous heat death?" Jack broke out laughing, Timothy starting to think this was just another of the man's jokes when, "Oh, that might makes things make more sense huh?" Oh. _Oh_. "Can...I ask what happened?" "...You remember when I got this?" Jack asked, gesturing to the scar on his face; the rune was a dark blue now, not the vibrate yellow it was when Jack had first come back. Tim nodded his head. "There was a creature in that Vault called the Sentinel; when Lilith punched the rune it guarded into my face, I felt something taking control of my mind." "The Sentinel." Timothy quickly realized and Jack hummed in agreement.

"It's why I had changed so dramatically behavior wise; it's why it seemed like I had just snapped when I had come back. But a few months back, I had bumped into one of my employees and suddenly some of the Sentinel's control over my head was gone." "...So when did you finally break free?" "When I went to the Bunker, right b-before..." Jack sucked in a deep breath, steadying himself. "Right before the Vault Hunters could kill my daughter." Tim felt a small amount of bile shoot up his throat, but he swallowed it back down. He's met Angel before--being one of the **_VERY_** few people to have entered the Bunker and lived--and the mere thought of what almost happened...

"She's with Lilith in Sanctuary." "WHAT?!" Timothy barked, shooting to his feet, fists balled tight enough that his knuckles turned white. "Sh, sh, sh. **I** was the one to hand her over." The news only helped to settle the body double so much. "I...wanted her to be away from me after everything I did to her, so I asked Lilith to be in charge of my daughter's recovery from the years I've pumped Eridium into her." Timothy's brows knitted together in worry, but he understood where Jack was coming from. "So...why are you asking me to help?" "You know I've done wrong to so many people, Timtam, so I was...hoping you might know where to start on fixing them?"

The moment grew tenser as Timothy said nothing, Jack worried that he'd flat out refuse to help him, but to his total surprise, the other man just broke out laughing. "Well, there are going to be some things you just can't fix; you'll just have to let those wounds heal on their own. As for the other stuff, lets make a list of it all, and we'll work from there." Jack was wrapped in both warm arms and laughter as he threw himself into his hired likeness, his face buried into his throat once more; Timothy's back hit the couch with a dull thud, pressing a kiss into Jack's hair. "Everything will be okay in the end, Jack, I promise."


	4. A Start

Timothy awoke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and eggs cooking. Jack had asked to stay the night and Tim had agreed, giving the man his bed so he had some kind of creature comfort after everything he's gone through, which left Timmy on the couch, but he's used to that. "Jack?" Timothy asked sleepily hearing a soft chuckle from the named man who was in his kitchen. "Mornin' pumpkin." Jack cooed as he entered the living room with a plate of food and a mug of milky coffee, setting them down on the table before dipping back into the kitchen to grab his own breakfast.

Jack settled onto the couch after he lifted up his double's head so it rested in his lap while he ate; he knew that Timothy took longer to wake up than he did--Jack being used to the franticness of corporate life and all--so he didn't mind that the food he made Tim might be slightly cold by the time his brain was finally active enough for him to get up. The bitter smell of Jack's black coffee mixed with the scent of eggs, bacon, and toast caused Tim's stomach to growl loudly and the man decided it would be good to eat the meal Jack had made them before it got any colder.

"Still don't know how you can drink that stuff black." Tim was more of a tea drinker than coffee, but he'll still have a cup of it in the morning to help him wake up. "You'd gag if I told you how I used to drink it." "Really?" Tim asked as he chewed on a piece of toast, dipping the edge of it in the egg yoke he broke to add more flavor to his breakfast. "Black, three packets of sugar, over ice." Yep, Tim gagged. "God, okay I guess I'm fine with you just drinking straight, HOT black coffee." Jack chuckled, taking a large gulp of said drink before finishing off his plate.

Tim watched as Jack gathered up his dishes and walked over to the sink, setting them down and started to reach for the nob to turn on the water when, "I'll take care of that, Jack." Tim's words stilled him, his eyes flickering over to his copied image with slight concern on his features. "You _are_ my guest. Only right that I take care of that." Jack's nervousness seemed to settle at his words, which Timothy admits is weird to see. "...You wanna use my shower, or..?" Tim tried to make small talk, but Jack seemed to still be distraught from their conversation last night.

Like he suggested, Jack and Timothy created a list of everything Jack's fucked up in some way and well... To say it was long was a **bit** of an understatement. They quickly crossed off things that Jack would be unable to fix, but that still left quiet the bucket of things to empty. "...Remember, start with the easier things and work your way from there; if you seem to get stuck on how to start fixing what you've messed up, leave it be and move on to the next thing. No need to rush these, and make sure you try and address what it _is_ that you fucked up; that's what you're trying to fix." "That's still a lot of things, Timtam..." Timmy stood up then, walking over to Jack and pulling him into a gentle hug, stroking the man's hair to soothe him.

"Yes, but we both know you can do this. You're Handsome freaking Jack after all; nothing is impossible for you." The ego boost was nice though it barely helped to settle Jack's fears. What if he fucked things up worse? What if he made it so it became totally un-fixable? What if-- "None of those little thoughts now, handsome." The pet name caught Jack off guard, locking his eyes with Tim's. "You are going to put things right and, with time, things ARE gonna get better." "...God, what did I even do to have someone like you around?" "Offer up a job that wiped out my student loans." Timothy deadpanned and it finally broke through the unease that had settled into the pit of Jack's stomach, the man openly laughing.

"There he is. There's that man that charmed the hell out of Hyperion." Tim praised as he saw Jack relax. He knew _EXACTLY_ how difficult this was for Jack; the man never liked to admit that he was wrong on any level. Jack was never one to ask for help unless he knew that there was no possible way for him to do it on his own, and even then the help he recieved somehow always managed to backfire on him in some way; like both Moxxi's and Lilith's betrayals when they were looking for the Vault on Elpis, or how the current batch of fresh Vault Hunters managed to kill both Wilhelm and Nisha, two people who actually managed to get close to Jack (Nisha being obviously a little closer since she and Jack had been dating).

"...Do...you think she'll ever forgive me?" Jack hushed, leaning heavily against the kitchen counter, eyes on his feet. "Angel? Well...that's hard to say; in the end it's up to her, but...there's always a chance she might, and a chance she might not." Timothy honestly stated. Why try to lie and say that she would? He may not know to full extent of the abuse Jack had inflicted onto his own daughter, but Tim's been bullied enough in his younger years to know that some people might be highly resentful towards the ones who hurt them (he knows he was).

Jack nodded his head, seeming to be thankful that his double didn't try to sugarcoat anything. "I should get going." "Hey." Tim spoke up, tenderly gripping Jack's arm as he made his way towards the front door. "You're always welcome to bunk here whenever you get overwhelmed, okay? I can always run up to your office if you need a shoulder to lean on; it's not a problem, Jack." Named man smiled warmly at his doppelganger, covered his hand with his own, before heading out of the apartment.

* * *

Altering the code of the restraint he has around Angel's neck without activating it had been trickier than expected. Normally, he would just deactivate the device and then mess with the program, but with his daughter unconscious at the moment, he's got NO idea just how **much** control Angel actually has over her powers.

He fondly recalls when he and his first wife had taken their daughter to the doctor to see what could have caused the sudden blue markings that appeared on Angel's arm one day, the vending machine acting up and annoying him, cussing it out without realizing she was there. He saw first hand as Angel used her powers, getting the machine to spit out several packages, Angel smiling wide and bright up at him once it stopped. _How could I have ever thought to hurt her..._ His sweet baby girl; his Angel.

Stupid Vault. Stupid Sentinel. Stupid mind control, or manipulation, or whatever the fuck it was. Stupid ego. Yeah, he said it. He partially blames his ego for what happened to his daughter and, to be fair, he's not entirely wrong; having a hero complex isn't an easy thing to live with, let alone have any control over it so someone, or _thing_, didn't take advantage of it. The only thing he's thankful for is that he killed off his Gran-gran; that woman would have beaten Angel worse than she did him and the bitch had told him that right to his face when he was younger.

Mom was a bitch, grandma was a bitch; the only one who had been nice to him was his father and he's dead.

_So glad I punched her when she left me in Gran-gran's care._ He would have seriously regretted that one if he let it slip past. Thinking about the bitch who eagerly abandoned him once his father was gone had him curious on what the woman was doing; not because he ACTUALLY cared for her or anything, but he had been keeping tabs on her (mainly to make sure she never came in contact with Angel) and about half a decade back she just vanished off his radar--knew she was still alive, but that was it. Shaking the query from his head, Jack refocused on the code before him, trying to re-work it so that the harmful parts were either removed completely or deactivated if he couldn't safely remove the code.

"...God, what the hell was wrong with me?" Nearly every _inch_ of the coding in the restraining device was entangled with the programs that would cause bodily harm to Angel should they go off, which was whenever Angel used her powers; the **only** thing that wouldn't trigger those programs was if Angel used her powers while the Eridium was pumping through her. Not long after the valuable element appeared on Pandora, Jack quickly pushed his R&D labs into extremely intense study of the element and its possible uses; it was how he found out that a Siren could charge a Vault Key if the Eridium was pumping through them, and it was also how he knew that long-term exposure to it would eventually make it a Siren's sole way to even survive, killing them rather quickly once the element was no longer flowing through their body.

Jack needed to figure out who the hell it was he bumped into those few months back and give them a fat check, a promotion and a hearty raise, and a good fuck; he knew he would have NEVER been able to break free of the Sentinel's control over his mind without that sudden weakening of its grasp. "Here we go..." Finally, he found the root of those fucking programs and nullified it, rendering the rest of the coding linked to it utterly useless. "Now we just need you to wake up so you can start training, Angel." Jack hushed as he glanced to the picture of his daughter that he has on his desk; his little girl, young and innocent to the real horrors of the world, smiling brightly as her blue eyes shone with joy and excitement. Picking up the frame, he traced the edge of it, thoughts sinking deeper and deeper in his head.

What if he never found that Vault on Elpis? What if he never happened upon the information of the Vault on Pandora that started all of this? What if he just kept his nose in his coding like he always did, and never knew anything except the rumors everyone did about Vaults and the possible riches they hold? Would Angel have learned to control her powers on her own with the help of his restraints? Would she have willingly helped him after she did have control, the two of them becoming Vault Hunters?

And what about that? What if Jack had continued the life of a Vault Hunter? Would he have been killed a lot sooner? Would he be like Timothy, forced to become good at killing just so he could survive? It would make all six universes freeze if anyone outside of the crew he hired to help him open the Vault on Elpis were to find out that Jack used to hate killing. He really did; violence was a HUGE turn-off for him after the years of abuse he had to go through and it was the VERY last resort if there was no other way out of a situation. But, after being betrayed by his family, lovers, and people he should have been able to call a friend if not someone he could count on, Jack just grew...cold.

It's who he is now; it's how everyone sees him: Handsome Jack, a psychopath who'll kill you just for the fun of it. However, if things were different? If ANYONE--outside of Tim--had stayed true to him before he entered that Vault, Jack knows he'd be a much different man. **_...You still can be. You just have to put in effort and try._**

Jack's eyes widen to dinner plates at the sudden sound of Angel's voice in his head. "Angel?!" **_I...think I'm still sleeping._** "How...can you..?" **_You took away the restraints, remember? They don't hurt me anymore, so I can use my powers._** He felt something wet running down his face, but ignored that so he could focus his full attention to his daughter. "I'm glad to hear that the serum is working at least; you...wouldn't be talking to me otherwise." Angel giggled softly. **_That's true._** "Have you let Lilith know that you're okay? The machines they've got you hooked up to say that your vitals are strong, but..."

**_No, I haven't yet, but I will in a moment._** Jack cocked a brow. Surely he thought Angel would have let Lilith know she was okay the second he removed that program's coding. "What? Why haven't you?" **_...Thank you, dad._** That wet stuff was blurring his vision a bit so he blinked it away, feeling as it slid down his face in trails that were already made. **_You'll...remove it, right?_** "O-Once you're awake, yeah. I-I'm not sure how much control you have over your gifts, honey, and I didn't want you to accidentally hurt yourself by turning off one of the machines." Jack hushed softly, like he did whenever Angel had been scared and ran to him for comfort.

**_Okay. Well...I should let Lilith know I'm okay._** He felt her start to fade from his mind. "ANGEL!" He barked, both of them pausing in their actions, waiting for Jack to react to his sudden call of her name. "...I love you, sweetheart, always have." **_...Love you too._** And then she was gone and Jack slid down in his chair, hands covering his face as more liquid--tears, he realized seconds later--washed down his face like rain during a thunder storm.


End file.
